Custom WordPress Development: A Complete Guide

Ask a web designer for a custom website, and they’re sure to build something beautiful. But how difficult will it be to edit after you’ve paid the final invoice? 

You shouldn’t need expert coding experience to keep your website updated with your latest new products and services. Unfortunately, easily editable templates on WordPress leave a lot to be desired. Too often, you’re left with a site devoid of the branding and visuals that make your business stand out from your competitors.

Enter custom WordPress development. WordPress is the most popular website builder in the world, with 43% of all websites built on the CMS. At Avalanche Creative, we create custom WordPress websites that are beautifully designed, easy to edit, and built on a foundation of SEO best practices. 

Not only will your website look gorgeous, but it will also be a breeze to edit and update for years to come—and it’ll become a lead-generating machine for your business.

What Is Custom WordPress Development?

Custom WordPress development involves using the world’s number-one website builder to create a custom website that is easy to maintain. Our team has scoured the internet for the best, simplest, most powerful WordPress plugins that enable us to create gorgeous websites without resorting to huge blocks of custom code.

Everyone wants a website that prioritizes user experience. A custom WordPress website from Avalanche prioritizes not just the experience of your customers but also your experience as the owner of your website. 

We’re not in the business of building complex websites that only we can maintain. Instead, we want to build websites that we can teach our clients to use with confidence long after our contracts have ended, regardless of their coding experience.

Our approach allows us to use tools within WordPress to create pages with unique design elements that can be updated globally or individually, depending on the desired effect. Custom post types and advanced custom fields (ACF) create a framework that allows us to make beautifully designed web pages that are still easy to edit and update on the backend of the website.

Types of Custom WordPress Pages

Our custom WordPress development services often center around the creation of specific types of pages. We can create custom page types to display a variety of content, from product categories to academic programs to restaurant menus. Our three most popular page types are industry pages, service pages, and location pages.

Industry Pages

Many businesses sell their products and services to a variety of industries, each with their own pain points and desires. Custom industry pages can allow you to write content that directly addresses the questions and needs of a specific audience. 

You can see this in action on our own website. We offer SEO and website services to a variety of businesses, from construction companies to cannabis dispensaries. With industry pages, we can answer questions specific to each audience. 

This targeted approach allows us to show our expertise and differentiate ourselves from the thousands of websites offering similar services with generic language and vague promises. (If you were a construction company, wouldn’t you rather work with the SEO agency that promoted construction-specific case studies showing 2,000+ generated leads, rather than one just promising they’ll “work hard to ensure your success”?)

Service Pages

If your core offering is a service or multiple services, your website needs to explain what they are, how they work, and how to get started. With custom WordPress development, our team will create service pages that are built to capture the nuances of each of your services while still presenting a cohesive design.

Google prefers websites that are built logically in a way that is easy for users to navigate. We can utilize service category pages to collect various single services onto one page, making it easy for users to see what you offer and explore services that may be related to the one that brought them to your site in the first place.

Once again, our website is a great example. Someone who’s looking for SEO services may not know what exactly they need. Our SEO service category page is built to lead users naturally to explore more specific SEO services, such as local SEO.

Location Pages

Speaking of local SEO, location pages are an excellent way to target potential customers based on where they live. The internet is global. To show that your company is ready and able to provide local services, you’ll need content dedicated to the unique concerns of specific locations.

For example, if you’re a civil engineering company that works throughout Michigan and Indiana, you’ll probably want to highlight your river-related services for your Grand Rapids audience, but not necessarily your Indianapolis customers. Location pages help you target your message to the right audience.

Custom WordPress Development Process

1. Create Sitemap

For any successful build, you need a blueprint. A sitemap serves as one for a website development project. With a sitemap, we’ll know what pages we need to create, move, combine, or delete to create a website built on logic and SEO best practices. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information—it’s no wonder they prefer well-organized websites.

2. Determine Custom Page Needs

Based on the pages and posts we outline in your sitemap, we’ll be able to see which pages might benefit from a custom design. For example, if you have five main services, we’ll likely suggest a custom service page that will provide a cohesive design for all five while still maintaining flexibility for individual content choices. 

Once we identify which types of custom pages we need, we’ll create templates that help us adhere to the desired structure of each page while still incorporating SEO best practices. This means that for every service page, for example, we’ll create content that ranks well for relevant keywords but still fits seamlessly into the desired page design.

3. Build Custom Pages in WordPress

Using various plugins and custom tools, we’ll build the desired pages into your WordPress site. Because we’re using WordPress, we’ll make the backend simple and easy to use. 

You’ll be able to make individual edits on specific pages or apply global changes across a certain page type. For example, if you decide you want to add a section with relevant case studies on your state pages, we’ll be able to apply that change globally to all 50 states at once.

4. Incorporate Branding & Design

No website project is complete without the branding and design that makes your company stand out from your competitors. Forget boring templates that are impossible to customize—with Avalanche’s custom WordPress development services, you’ll get all of the design benefits of a custom-coded website without any of the headaches.

5. Provide Publishing Training

At Avalanche, we’re not in the business of gatekeeping our knowledge. At the end of your website project, we’ll teach you how to use your website with confidence, regardless of if you continue to work with us. That way, your website can stay updated, beautiful, and user-friendly for years to come.

Benefits of Custom WordPress Development Services

Compatible with SEO

WordPress is the most compatible CMS platform for SEO. It allows users who upload content to edit metadata, add image alt text, target a main keyword, and use plugins to assess how effective the SEO value of a page is. 

Easy to Edit

A major appeal of WordPress is that it’s incredibly user-friendly. Even the most inexperienced of clients can easily make edits or maintain their site. Technology isn’t everyone’s forte, and that’s fine! WordPress custom fields are easy to edit once we show you how.

Secure 

As part of your website project, Avalanche can host your website, ensuring its security through our safety protocols. We go to great lengths to implement the necessary precautions to ensure your data is secure.

Original Design 

Gone are the days of having to put up with a complex, custom-coded website to see your web design dreams come to fruition. Now, you can have an original design for your website without having to possess expert coding knowledge.

Start Your Custom Website Design with Avalanche

Ready to get started on your custom WordPress website? The team at Avalanche Creative offers a variety of web design and development services to ensure you get a website that is built on the foundation of SEO. Reach out today for a free quote on your new custom website.

Questions About Custom Website Development

How Long Will It Take My Custom WordPress Website to Be Built?

A website with custom web development services will take at least a few months, but the length of the project can vary greatly. Factors such as the size of the website, complicated features, and the amount of time it takes to acquire images and information for the site play a role. 

Does Avalanche Also Host Websites?

We offer website hosting with our custom web development services. When we build you a custom WordPress website, hosting is easy to include as part of the package. 

How Is Client Feedback Involved in the Process?

Client feedback is important to us every step of the way. We share our plan with you to make sure you’re happy with how your website is turning out. We don’t take your money and disappear for weeks at a time; we value your input and touch base regularly. 

Do I Need to Constantly Update My Plugins?

Avalanche has created a way to set up WordPress sites so that plugin updates are automatic. No need to worry about outdated plugins not working!